Dideoxy sequencing method using denatured plasmid templates

The dideoxy sequencing method in which denatured plasmid DNA is used as a template was improved. The method is simple and rapid: the recombinant plasmid DNA is extracted and purified by rapid alkaline lysis followed by ribonuclease treatment. The plasmid DNA is then immediately denatured with alkali and subjected to a sequencing reaction utilizing synthetic oligonucleotide primers. It takes only several hours from the start of the plasmid extraction to the end of the sequencing reaction. We examined each step of the procedure, and several points were found to be crucial for making the method reproducible and powerful: (i) the plasmid DNA should be free from RNA and open circular (or linear) DNA; (ii) a heptadecamer rather than a pentadecamer is recommended as a primer; and (iii) the sequencing reaction should be done at 37 degrees C or higher rather than at room temperature. The method enabled us to determine the sequence of more than a thousand nucleotides from a single template DNA.     

Strategy and methods for directly sequencing cosmid clones

The primer-directed enzymatic sequencing method for sequencing double-stranded DNA templates has made possible the development of new strategies for directly sequencing large DNA molecules. Toward this goal, we have developed a strategy and the necessary techniques to obtain the complete sequence of cosmid clones (double-stranded DNA molecules in the size range of 50 kb). Our present strategy uses the chemical sequencing method to obtain sequence initiation points internal to a cosmid insert and the primer-directed enzymatic DNA sequencing method to extend these sequence contigs. As part of this development we added a nucleotide "chase" solution to the standard T7 sequencing protocol and included the use of both [alpha-32P]-dATP and -dCTP for labeling. With these modifications our double-stranded cosmid DNA sequencing reactions routinely extend well beyond 1000 bp, and film exposure times are kept to a minimum (24 to 48 h). We can routinely separate sequenced DNA fragments, using a 1-m gel system, which can be accurately read (with less than 0.5% error) to distances of 800 bp or more, from the oligomer primer. The strategy and procedures presented here allow the complete sequence of a cosmid clone to be obtained without subcloning.     

An efficient, automatable template preparation for high throughput sequencing

We have developed a 96-well format for DNA template isolation that can be readily automatable. The template isolation protocol involves simple alkaline lysis chemistry and reversible capture on a silica solid phase. After the cells are lysed, no centrifugation is necessary, as lysate purification, DNA binding, washing, and release occur in 96-well filter plates. Large numbers of templates prepared using the silica purification method have been sequenced and analyzed. The quality of sequence resulting from our method has been compared with that generated from several commercial plasmid preparation protocols. We found sequence quality of the silica bead preparations to be equivalent to or, in some cases, better than those prepared by other methods. This method offers many advantages over other protocols we have used. First, the silica purifications have allowed us to more than double overall laboratory throughput while decreasing our template isolation materials cost at least five-fold. Second, because we have eliminated all centrifugation steps in the protocol, automation has been much simpler. The protocol has also been adapted to purify PCR products for use as templates in subsequent sequencing reactions.     

Resuspension of DNA sequencing reaction products in agarose increases sequence quality on an automated sequencer

We are investigating approaches to increase DNA sequencing quality. Since a majorfactor in sequence generation is the cost of reagents and sample preparations, we have developed and optimized methods to sequence directly plasmid DNA isolated from alkaline lysis preparations. These methods remove the costly PCR and post-sequencing purification steps but can result in low sequence quality when using standard resuspension protocols on some sequencing platforms. This work outlines a simple, robust, and inexpensive resuspension protocol for DNA sequencing to correct this shortcoming. Resuspending the sequenced products in agarose before electrophoresis results in a substantial and reproducible increase in sequence quality and read length over resuspension in deionized water and has allowed us to use the aforementioned sample preparation methods to cut considerably the overall sequencing costs without sacrificing sequence quality. We demonstrate that resuspension of unpurified sequence products generated from template DNA isolated by a modified alkaline lysis technique in low concentrations of agarose yields a 384% improvement in sequence quality compared to resuspension in deionized water. Utilizing this protocol, we have produced more than 74,000 high-quality, long-read-length sequences from plasmid DNA template on the MegaBACET 1000 platform.     

Automated sequencing of fluorescently labelled DNA by chemical degradation

A new general method for sequencing fluorescently labelled DNA by chemical degradation has been developed. It is based on the observation that fluorescein attached via a mercaptopropyl or aminopropyl linker arm to the 5'-phosphate of an oligonucleotide is stable during the reactions commonly used in chemical cleavage procedures. DNA to be degraded is first enzymatically synthesized in vitro by annealing and extending a fluorescently labelled primer thereby introducing the fluorescent label at the 5'-end of the fragment. The newly synthesized fluorescently labelled DNA is then chemically degraded using: (a) a set of four different cleavage reactions; or (b) only one reaction comprising methylation of G-residues followed by a partial cleavage with piperidine in the presence of sodium chloride. The fluorescent degradation products are loaded on either four lanes or one lane of the gel, respectively, and the emitted fluorescence detected online during electrophoresis. In the 'four reactions/four lanes' method 200-350 bp (base pairs) can be read from the labelled end. The 'one reaction/one lane' method, in which the nucleotide sequence is determined by measuring different signal intensities following the rule G greater than A greater than C greater than T, currently yields around 100-200 bp of sequence per sample.     

Use of a chemically modified T7 DNA polymerase for manual and automated sequencing of supercoiled DNA

Procedures are presented for reliable and accurate nucleotide sequence analysis using as template supercoiled DNA prepared by a modified rapid boiling minipreparation protocol. This method yields DNA templates suitable for sequencing within 1 h of bacterial harvest. We describe optimal reaction conditions for supercoiled miniprep DNA sequencing using a modified T7 DNA polymerase (Sequenase) in dideoxynucleotide chain termination reactions. We demonstrate that under these conditions, the sequencing data obtained with miniprep DNA is indistinguishable from that obtained with CsCl purified supercoiled DNA or from that obtained using single stranded DNA templates. We further show that the supercoiled DNA sequencing reactions can be analyzed on a commercially available automated DNA sequencing system that detects 32P labeled DNA during its electrophoretic separation. Taken together, these developments represent a significant improvement in the process of nucleotide sequence analysis.     

Rapid and reliable fluorescent cycle sequencing of double-stranded templates.

Automated DNA sequencing is an extremely valuable technique which requires very high quality DNA templates to be carried out successfully. While it has been possible to readily produce large numbers of such templates from M13 or other single-stranded vectors for several years, the sequencing of double-stranded DNA templates using the ABI 373 DNA Sequencer has had a considerably lower success rate. We describe how the combination of a new fluorescent, dideoxy sequencing method, called cycle-sequencing, coupled with modifications to template isolation procedures based on Qiagen columns, makes fluorescent sequencing of double-stranded templates a reliable procedure. From a single five milliliter culture enough DNA can be isolated (up to 20 micrograms) to do 4-8 sequencing reactions, each of which yields 400-500 bases of high quality sequence data. These procedures make the routine use of double-stranded DNA templates a viable strategy in automated DNA sequencing projects.     

A method for sequencing single-stranded cloned DNA in both directions

A DNA sequencing method has been developed whereby DNA that has been cloned in a single-stranded bacteriophage vector can be sequenced from both ends. The method involves first making a minus-strand sense template from a single-stranded insert in the vector MJ3mp2 using a flanking primer, and then sequencing the synthesized template using the dideoxynucleotide termination method (Sangeret al., 1977, 1980) with a second primer. Special conditions are described under which the first primer is easily removed after making the templat% and sequencing in the opposite direction can be done in the normal way (Sangeret al., 1980) without separating the double strands. This method renders it possible to read up to twice the amount of sequence data from a long insert and also to check short inserts by producing complementary sequence patterns.     

DNA sequencing by synthesis with degenerate primers

The degenerate primer-based sequencing Was developed by a synthesis method(DP-SBS)for high-throughput DNA sequencing,in which a set of degenerate primers are hybridized on the arrayed DNA templates and extended by DNA polymerase on microarrays.In this method,adifferent set of degenerate primers containing a give nnumber(n)of degenerate nucleotides at the 3'-ends were annealed to the sequenced templates that were immobilized on the solid surface.The nucleotides(n 1)on the template sequences were determined by detecting the incorporation of fluorescent labeled nucleotides.The fluorescent labeled nucleotide was incorporated into the primer in a base-specific manner after the enzymatic primer extension reactions and nine-base length were read out accurately.The main advanmge of the DP-SBS is that the method only uses very conventional biochemical reagents and avoids the complicated special chemical reagents for removing the labeled nucleotides and reactivating the primer for further extension.From the present study,it is found that the DP-SBS method is reliable,simple,and cost-effective for laboratory-sequencing a large amount of short DNA fragments.     

Glass bead purification of plasmid template DNA for high throughput sequencing of mammalian genomes

To meet the new challenge of generating the draft sequences of mammalian genomes, we describe the development of a novel high throughput 96-well method for the purification of plasmid DNA template using size-fractionated, acid-washed glass beads. Unlike most previously described approaches, the current method has been designed and optimized to facilitate the direct binding of alcohol-precipitated plasmid DNA to glass beads from alkaline lysed bacterial cells containing the insoluble cellular aggregate material. Eliminating the tedious step of separating the cleared lysate significantly simplifies the method and improves throughput and reliability. During a 4 month period of 96-capillary DNA sequencing of the Rattus norvegicus genome at the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center, the average success rate and read length derived from >1 800 000 plasmid DNA templates prepared by the direct lysis/glass bead method were 82.2% and 516 bases, respectively. The cost of this direct lysis/glass bead method in September 2001 was ~10 cents per clone, which is a significant cost saving in high throughput genomic sequencing efforts.     

Automated template quantification for DNA sequencing facilities.

The quantification of plasmid DNA by the PicoGreen dye binding assay has been automated, and the effect of quantification of user-submitted templates on DNA sequence quality in a core laboratory has been assessed. The protocol pipets, mixes and reads standards, blanks and up to 88 unknowns, generates a standard curve, and calculates template concentrations. For pUC19 replicates at five concentrations, coefficients of variance were 0.1, and percent errors were from 1% to 7% (n=198). Standard curves with pUC19 DNA were nonlinear over the 1 to 1733 ng/microL concentration range required to assay the majority (98.7%) of user-submitted templates. Over 35,000 templates have been quantified using the protocol. For 1350 user-submitted plasmids, 87% deviated by >or=20% from the requested concentration (500 ng/microL). Based on data from 418 sequencing reactions, quantification of user-submitted templates was shown to significantly improve DNA sequence quality. The protocol is applicable to all types of double-stranded DNA, is unaffected by primer (1 pmol/microL), and is user modifiable. The protocol takes 30 min, saves 1 h of technical time, and costs approximately $0.20 per unknown.     

快速检查寡聚DNA片段序列的方法

以质粒为模板,用待测寡聚DNA片段和通用测序引物进行PCR（聚合酶链式反应）,PCR片段经纯化后插入到pUC－18或pUC－19的多克隆位点中,然后用通用测序引物测定重组质粒上待测寡聚DNA片段,即可清晰、正确地知道它的序列．     

PRIMO: A Primer Design Program That Applies Base Quality Statistics for Automated Large-Scale DNA Sequencing

PRIMO is a computer program that designs walking primers for large-scale DNA sequencing projects. Oligonucleotide primers are predicted automatically, using quality information associated with each base call, eliminating the need for manually viewing the sequence traces or inspecting contig assemblies to determine appropriate locations for primer design. This allows PRIMO to run in batch mode on an arbitrarily large number of templates. For shotgun sequencing, PRIMO reads assembled sequence contigs with corresponding base quality statistics and automatically designs walking primers as needed to extend and join contigs, or improve their overall quality. In the opposite extreme of single-pass or completely directed sequencing, PRIMO reads the unassembled sequence for each template and designs walking primers for extending each read. If the base-calling software does not provide base quality statistics, PRIMO assigns its own measure of base quality determined by the shapes of individual peaks in the trace data for each template. In this way, PRIMO can be used in the finishing stages of a shotgun sequencing project, in sequencing by directed primer walking, or in some intermediate strategy. The code is written in ANSI C and maintained in two versions: one for the Macintosh and the other for UNIX.     

Solid phase DNA sequencing using the biotin-avidin system.

A novel method for solid-phase DNA sequencing is described. A plasmid vector, pRIT27, has been designed to allow directional immobilization of double stranded plasmid to avidin agarose. The strategy involves enzymatic incorporation of 11-bio-dUTP into the plasmid and strand specific elution using alkali. The immobilized single stranded DNA is used as template for sequencing reactions and the resulting labelled oligonucleotides are eluted by alkali. The affinity gel containing the immobilized template is consecutively used for the four different dideoxy-nucleotide reactions. The solid-phase technique can be used for both primer specific or extension specific labelling. The possibility to use the system in automated DNA sequencing is discussed.     

Multi-priming sequencing: a DNA sequencing method involving restriction enzyme-digested DNA fragments as primers.

An improved strategy for fluorescence-labeled dideoxy chain termination sequencing involving restriction enzyme-digested DNA fragments as primers, which are prepared from the DNA to be sequenced, is described. By using modified nucleoside triphosphates for strand protection in chain termination reactions, newly synthesized chains were detached from a primer at the regenerated recognition site by means of suitable restriction enzyme digestion. The digests could be analyzed with commercial automated DNA sequencers. Thus, by using restriction DNA fragments (double-stranded) as primers, sequence information was obtained from both "minus" and "plus" single-stranded DNA templates without subcloning. Nor is the synthesis of oligonucleotide primers needed. This method, named "Multi-Priming Sequencing," was proven to be time-saving, economical, and effective compared to conventional methods.     

Use of tagged random hexamer amplification (TRHA) to clone and sequence minute quantities of DNA--application to a 180 kb plasmid isolated from Sphingomonas F199.

We have developed a novel method to clone and sequence minute quantities of DNA. The method was applied to sequence a 180 kb plasmid pNL1. The first step was the production of a size distributed population of DNA molecules that were derived from the 180 kb plasmid pNL1. The first step was accomplished by a random synthesis reaction using Klenow fragment and random hexamers tagged with a T7 primer at the primer 5'-end (T7-dN6, 5'-GTAATACGACTCACTATAGGGCNNNNNN-3'. In the second step, Klenow-synthesized molecules were amplified by PCR using T7 primer (5'-GTAATACGACTCACTATAGGGC-3'). With a hundred nanograms starting plasmid DNA from pNL1, we were able to generate Klenow-synthesized molecules with sizes ranging from 28 bp to >23 kb which were detectable on an agarose gel. The Klenow-synthesized molecules were then used as templates for standard PCR with T7 primer. PCR products of sizes ranging from 0.3 to 1.3 kb were obtained for cloning and sequencing. From the same Klenow-synthesized molecules, we were also able to generate PCR products with sizes up to 23 kb by long range PCR. A total 232.5 kb sequences were obtained from 593 plasmid clones and over twenty putative genes were identified. Sequences from these 593 clones were assembled into 62 contigs and 99 individual sequence fragments with a total unique sequence of 86.3 kb.     

Method for preparing single-stranded DNA templates for Pyrosequencing using vector ligation and universal biotinylated primers

In Pyrosequencing, the addition of nucleotides to a primer-template hybrid is monitored by enzymatic conversion of chemical energy into detectable light. The technique yields both qualitative and quantitative sequence information because the chemical energy is released by a stoichiometric split off of pyrophosphates from incorporated deoxynucleotide triphosphates and a defined nucleotide dispensation order is given. Because Pyrosequencing works best if single-stranded DNA templates are used, template generation usually requires PCR with a target-specific biotinylated primer and a subsequent purification involving interaction of the biotin label with immobilized streptavidin. To circumvent the need for numerous and expensive template-specific biotinylated primers, we developed a method that uses the ligation of amplified DNA fragments into a plasmid vector, thereby facilitating subsequent PCR using a universal vector-specific biotinylated primer. This approach allows easy and straightforward isolation of single-stranded templates of any PCR product. As a proof of principle, we used the method for genotyping two single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the human genes CARD15 and A2M and for characterization of four multisite variations in the human DEFB104 gene.     

OLFinder-a program which disentangles DNA sequences containing heterozygous indels

The presence of heterozygous indels in a DNA sequence usually results in the sequence being discarded. If the sequence trace is of high enough quality, however, it will contain enough information to reconstruct the two constituent sequences with very little ambiguity. Solutions already exist using comparisons with a known reference sequence, but this is often unavailable for nonmodel organisms or novel DNA regions. I present a program which determines the sizes and positions of heterozygous indels in a DNA sequence and reconstructs the two constituent haploid sequences. No external data such as a reference sequence or other prior knowledge are required. Simulation suggests an accuracy of >99% from a single read, with errors being eliminable by the inclusion of a second sequencing read, such as one using a reverse primer. Diploid sequences can be fully reconstructed across any number of heterozygous indels, with two overlapping sequencing reads almost always sufficient to infer the entire DNA sequence. This eliminates the need for costly and laborious cloning, and allows data to be used which would otherwise be discarded. With no more laboratory work than is needed to produce two normal sequencing reads, two aligned haploid sequences can be produced quickly and accurately and with extensive phasing information.     

Two-step cycle sequencing reduces premature terminations when using primers with high annealing temperatures

Direct cycle sequencing of double-stranded polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products using thermostable polymerase produces fragments that are shorter than expected when the enzyme prematurely detaches as it approaches the 5′-end of the DNA template. These premature terminations result in a substantially reduced reading length of the DNA sequence. Since some DNA templates spontaneously fold and form stable secondary structures at temperatures that are typically used for primer annealing, one factor that may cause premature terminations to occur is the formation of secondary structures in the template during the annealing step of the cycle sequencing reaction. We describe a simple and effective method for reducing premature terminations in DNA sequences. We demonstrate that maintaining the annealing temperature of the cycle sequencing reaction above a critical temperature reduces premature terminations in DNA sequences that regularly contain premature terminations when the temperature of the annealing step is 60°C. In the method described, annealing and extension of the primer along the template take place at the same temperature (72°C). This procedure for reducing premature terminations can be applied when sequencing with primers that are relatively long (at least 27 mer) and have high optimal annealing temperatures.